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Friday, November 09, 2007

What do you install after a Windows re-format?

I have become a minimalist in many ways, so this was a good chance to do some housekeeping and only install the minimums (which ended up being pretty significant). I detailed this process and I am sharing it with you here. It would be interesting to find out what applications you consider essential when doing a complete re-format.

1 comment:

Okay, some people (who commented on the DIGG story) would seriously SUCK as a SysAdmin! The ONLY person on here whom i can even come close to respecting is the person who says "5000 freaking updates!" LMAO

ok now, Seriously ... this is what I would do, and of course, a MANDATORY REBOOT between EACH itemized updated line.

BEFORE installing a Windows OS (of any kind) ...

I. I first: *** ONLY IF NEEDED *** Update the BIOS of the Motherboard (very carefully) to the latest rendition(*** BIOS UPDATES ARE EXTREMELY DANGEROUS, ONLY DO THIS IF THERE IS A REQUISITE HARDWARE ISSUE - PROCEED WITH CAUTION)

-- I then install Windows XP SP2 Pro / SP2 MediaCenter2005 --(My preferred user-editions of XP is so far the "XP SP2 9in1" compilation, I have yet to try others like UWI or make my own with BartPE or nLite) (NOTE: I never connect the PC to any network at all, till way down near the end of my list)

II. Install / update the appropriate RAID or SCSI drivers during installation, then reboot (If I don't have the latest ones on hand then I update them AFTER installation if I can find newer ones ...

IX. Update drivers for ALL PERIPHERALS (this includes Parallel and Serial devices, and USB, whatever). A. Installation of applications for handling my APC UPS unit (USB) B. PC-Linq/2 for my USB file-transfer cable system (it is like "LapLink" but different - APC brand)

X. NEXT I install any manufacturer-related software (the big vendors make their own tools for wireless, windows help extensions, display controls, and the like...). Laptops and consumer-oriented "factory preassembled" desktops are heavy-laden with big vendor brand software (and NO I am not talking about the extra "fluff" they install afterwards like spyware and "crap-ware" and junkware).

XI. NEXT I connect all Network and USB hubs, including my Raritan KVM unit A. which then entails installing all drivers for peripherals detected thusly 1. (my KVM Switch doesn't require any drivers, it just has updateable firmware) ...

XVII. (Then, ideally, this, my item 17, SHOULD be to make a Hard Disk IMAGE of all my system areas (ie: "ghosting" to an image file) but i have never had to do this very often yet. In a work environment however, this would be a strict need, beyond any doubt.) A. I would do this by installing: Symantec Ghost, Acronis DiskImager, or PowerQuest's imager... 1. Rebooting under 1 of those utilities or into a "LiveCD" whereas the installed Windows system is NOT running 2. Imaging all of the system areas to an external drive or 2nd/extra free/empty partition to hold the image file 3. Reboot the computer back into Windows 4. BURN the image file as a file onto a DVD 4/9GB Data disc. B. Voila! System Functionality has been backed up, and now I have an Instant 911 Emergency System Restore DVD. 1. Possible later project ideas for this include making a Khauyeung-like BartPE/WinPE "LiveCD" Restoration DVD

Rinse, lather, repeat!Now all you LAMERS: R.T.F.M. !!!lolllll

PS: Thank you to the Mr. Klaus Knopper and his Knoppix Linux Live DVDs! Thanks also to the "Bart PE Project" for ERD and data recovery, to Microsoft's Windows PE media format Initiative, and to Michael K.H. Au-Yeung, without whom (and the inspiration therefrom) and whose custom rescue CD's/DVD's, much of this outlined work would never have been possible!